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this afternoon while on a dailly sticky board inspection of my 2 experimental hives. When I pulled the sticky board from the first hive I saw about 50 small (1/4 size of a lady bug) beatles ? scamper across the board and drop to the ground and were gone. Could this be the Small Hive Beatle ? They were black and very fast. What should be done about them ? HELP
Clint (there were no mites on the sticky board)

Sounds like small hive beatles. I don't have the web site that you can look at with me right now but I have them tommorrow. They have pics of the beatles on them.

As far as what you can do. One is keep your hives strong. Also ants love SHB larva. In some areas the ants do as much harm as the beatles but here in N. Georgia they are our friends. Check Mite works also but the beatles have to come in direct contact with it. You have to take a peace of card board and tear one side off so the perferations are showing and put the strips under it. The beatles run under the card board and come in contact with the strips. I've been thinking about using some type of sticky board under the card board, but it's going to have to be real sticky...

I thank you for the help and the link.
I finely caught 2 of them and took them to Michigan State University and had them identified as the african small hive beetles and they also told me the only way Michigan will let me control them. They also asked about any bad smells and if any foamy honey was leaking from the hive. Also to check all my hives for the same. in Sept I contacted them about the funny sweet smell coming from the first hive. When it stops raining here I will inspect all my hives for this
Clint

acording to what they gave me as a handout Michigan doesn't have a severe problem here but check all hives in the area
here is the quote of what they gave me
"Control. The most critical thing is early detection. Check your colonies carefully paying special attention to the top inner cover and the bottom board for beetles. Collect specemins for identification. send to Dr. Zachary Huang at Michigan State University. If they are small hive beetles Michigan has obtained a section 18 (emergency registration so you may be authorized to use coumophos on the bottom board only. Treat the soil within 1 foot of the hive with GardStar that contains 40% permethrin. Using 5 ml of GardStat per liter and spray underneath the hive. It is not clear how long this application will last."
Clint